Torode cooking in a melting pot

John Torode has said his new TV show Australia will show cuisines from all over the world - because Australia is such a cultural melting pot.

The MasterChef judge went on a road trip around his native country for his new series for the Good Food Channel, cooking different food with the different people he met up with.

John explained: "Australia as a culinary destination is an extraordinary place because it's such a young country. It's only just over 200 years old. It's been influenced and born out of the people who have migrated to Australia - from Vietnam and Korea, to Italy and Turkey and Lebanon.

"And all these things have come together, but what happens is each one of those communities separated themselves and kept their traditions, so the food is original and traditional.

"It's not fusion. The modern Australian chefs might be doing fusion, but if you go to a Lebanese restaurant, you eat Lebanese food."

And filming the show was a sentimental journey for the chef and restaurant owner.

He said: "The whole thing really is about my childhood. My childhood was very, very fortunate in that I was able to do a lot. I grew up on the beach, I learned to fish and sail and scuba dive.

"But I also grew up in the country so I can ride a horse, milk a cow, fix a bike, drive a tractor.

"All those things come together, and what happened was food became a big part of that, and I think Australian life is focused around food and being sociable. Food is a really important part of what punctuates my life and joins it all together, and without it there wouldn't be any John Torode."

:: John Torode's Australia begins on Monday March 3 on the Good Food Channel.